Firefly

Oddly enough, there may be Browncoats out there who are on the fence about this. “I’ve already got the movie. In fact, I have it in fullscreen, widescreen, HD, PSP, and three different download formats, plus a couple of overseas versions. I need another one?”

Yes. Yes, you do. And here’s why.

1. More stuff you don’t need an all-regions DVD player to see. With this 2-disc set you’ll finally get the features that Europe and Australia got already (You don’t get the long Q&A Joss did in Australia, but you can catch that on Youtube). First up: The Extended Scenes (6 min. 45 sec.). Longer versions of some of the scenes in the movie, including more Mal and Inara.

2. You love buying new Serenity things, admit it. It makes you tingly.

3. Owning this frees you up to give away your old one and spread the word. Give it to your friends — assuming you have any that have resisted this long.

4. Longer “behind the scenes” feature. This is the Aussie cut, with more scenes (including some from the first cast table read).

5. Somewhere there is a network executive(s) who is still baffled at the refusal of this property to die, despite his, her, or their best efforts. Buy the DVD with a song in your heart.

6. “A Filmmakers Journey” (19 min. 49 sec.). How Joss took “Serenity” from a cancelled show to a new movie.

7. Better cover art. Way, way better cover art. It’s not 11th Hour quality, but few things in this world are and this is much classier. Not a llama in sight.

8. “Take a Walk on Serenity” (4 min.). Joss, Nathan, Alan, and Adam take us on a special tour of the Serenity ship. Worth it to see Jayne flying the ship.

9. DVD Feng Shui. You’ve already got “Serenity” DVDs on your shelf with brown and blue edges, you need a black one to balance ‘em out.

10. The Session 416 videos (7 min. 52 sec). River’s scary-cool progression through the Academy. I loved seeing ‘em online but I can’t wait to see ‘em on a bigger screen.

11. Can you be sure this isn’t a different cut? Maybe Wash lives. Maybe Book and Inara finally realize they’re meant for each other (and where are the Book-Inara shippers? Let’s step up, people…). You know, you’d better get one, just to make sure.

12. New packaging. A Digipak case, one of the ones you see in special edition DVDs and TV DVD sets, with a gatefold, foldout design and often a slipcase. I’m thinking that means more photos, more text, all good.

13. Because how cool would it be to see Best Buy pulling out pallets of the thing to meet demand.

14. “The Green Clan” (3 min. 3 sec). A featurette on cinematographer Jack M. Green and his family/crew.

15. You can donate your old copy to your local library. Or a distant library. Or just give it to a thrift store so someone else can stumble across it.

16. Finally you can see the Fruity Oaty feature without remembering which up-down-sideways buttons to hit to get to the easter egg.

17. “SciFi Inside: Serenity” (21 min. 41 sec). The pre-movie SciFi Channel special hosted by Adam Baldwin. Cast interviews, lots of scenes from the movie.

18. Support the troops. There are soldiers overseas that dsperately need something fun in their lives, and here you are with an extra movie lying around…

19. It is the responsibility of every patriotic American to boost our economy. Probably it’s the same for Canadians, even if their dollar is doing better than ours these days. In fact, Americans had better buy two DVDs.

20. Brand. New. Cast. Commentary. Joss, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass talking about our favorite movie. Face it, this is a good enough reason all by itself.

21. Opportunities for random kindness. Hand your old copy to the first person you see on the street. Leave it on a bus, or in a restaurant booth.

22. Amazon rankings. At the moment, two weeks before it hits the streets, this re-release of a break-even movie based on a cancelled TV show is at #61 in DVD sales and moving up. After a summer of big-budget and largely disappointing movies, I want to see this at #1.

23. There’s a new front page at the official Serenity movie site, with new video clips. You don’t want them to have wasted all that work, do you?

24. Because you need a reason for a new shindig. DVD release party! Get the gang together and go move “Serenity” in front of “Wild Hogs” on the shelves at Wal-Mart.

25. And the big reason: “Serenity 2.” It is by no means definite, and is in fact one hell of a long shot, but there’s that possibility that massive sales of this DVD could lead to more Serenity in some form. From Joss’ interview at Comic Con with RopeofSilicon:

So give me hope for a Serenity II

JW: Hope for it probably rests with this DVD.

Well I’ll buy one.

JW: Actually I will too, people ask me why I would buy my own DVD and I tell them do you have any idea how awesome it is to buy your own movie?

So then you’re saying we’ve got a chance?

JW: Well it’s probably not being discussed in boardrooms right now, but the fact of the matter is if it makes enough money sooner or later they say “hey, this is money!”